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Hey look another chapter!
...Should I have to explain what a blocked call is?
Okay, for simplicity I'm going to explain height before we begin because I can't think of a good place to state how tall everyone really is in the story.
Minerva is 5' 10".
Emerson is 6' 0".
Peter is 6' 1".
Heather is 5' 5".
Elizabeth is 5' 7".
Annabelle is 3' 8" or so.

Oh yeah and a new new character too! Prepare yourself, because she's gonna be crazy.

Emerson wasn’t fully aware of what he was doing at this precise moment. He recalled rushing into the house, Annabelle in tow, and running up the Minerva’s room to lock himself in. After replaying the recent events over and over again in is head his mind couldn’t take it anymore so he decided to distract himself with the book he’d gotten earlier from the library. He hadn’t realized it but he had been holding a tight grip on the thing this entire time.

Opening the book and skipping the introduction at the beginning he began to read.

‘Astral projection is like an ‘out-of-body experience’ in that it assumes the existence of an "astral body" separate from the physical body and capable of traveling outside it…’

Before the man could get any further he felt his eye lids drupe and his body started to feel heavy. Not wanting to fall over he eased himself down on the bed and drifted off into sleep, his last thoughts wondering just how he got so tired in the first place.

“Mira!” Heather shouted, angrily grabbing her much larger daughter by the wrist and dragging her further inside the moment the black haired woman stepped into the doorway.

“Yes, Mother?” the younger woman asked, her voice showing she knew what was coming.

“I thought your Father told you to stay by Emerson’s side!” the older woman glared upward at her daughter, trying to impose her authority but failing miserably due to the height difference. The difference was a matter of a mere five inches but Minerva never had found her mother all that frightening after she hit a major growth spurt and towered above the woman.

“I tried, but there was a work related problem so I had to take care of it,” she paused, her mothers expression looked a bit surprised but the anger was still there, “then he tried to follow me, something must have spooked him,” that wasn’t a lie, “so he ran off down an elevator and I had to wait for it to come back up before I could go after him…” she trailed off, that also wasn’t a lie, “so I take it him and Annabelle,” irritation spiked in her voice upon saying that name but settled as she continued, “are back already?”

Heather sighed in frustration, unsure of what to do with her eldest daughter sometimes, “Yes. And he’s upset, he ran in here looking like he was about to cry but before I could ask him what was wrong he ran up to your room and locked the door behind him!” she threw her arms up into the air to illustrate her frustration. “That’s when I noticed you were not with him like you were supposed to be.”

“And that’s another thing,” the older of the two walked forward toward the other which caused her to back up in response from the sudden invasion of her bubble. Before the taller of the two knew it she was backed into a corner, suddenly very intimidated by her mother, “we can’t just go around exorcizing spirits we see out on the streets and it’s very unlike you for you to take care of a ‘work related problem’ when we haven’t had any jobs in a month,” she paused and Minerva said nothing in response, “there are no work related problems, if there was a apparition of any sort around then we all would have sensed it and your Father would have set up a job for any of us, so…” she reached out and grabbed the other woman on the shoulder, squeezing slightly, “tell Mommy just what you were doing.” Minerva swore to God her mother gave the creepiest smile another human being could possibly give.

“Fine,” she said, thinking up something on the spot, “I lied about the whole work thing,” she stated, a blush forming on her face, “I saw something that I wanted to look at alone so I had Annabelle help me in sneaking away to do so and lying for me,” her voice became more childish and innocent, “but Emerson eventually found me and when he did find me there was this really stupid guy flirting with me and maybe he got the wrong impression! I don’t really know why he ran off! But I didn’t mean to hurt him, I swear!”

Heather backed off and looked at the woman. She nodded, signaling that the woman was free to go from the spontaneous interrogation. However as she watched the woman dash up the stairs she still felt suspicious of the woman. She had not believed the lie she had just been told but she knew that she wouldn’t ever get the truth out of her daughter and she knew that Annabelle wouldn’t tell her anything, if she even knew anything, either. Heather decided that for now she’d just better wait it out. She still had lunch to prepare after all and her husband didn’t particularly like waiting for his meals. With that she plastered her usual smile back on her face and happily walked off to the kitchen, a small skip in her step, to prepare lunch.

Her heart was pounding as she braced herself against the wall next to her bedroom door. Minerva had never been so scared before, not since… She never knew her mother could be so frightening given how she normally acts. Then again, she thought of her Father for a moment then back to her Mother, it actually made sense also given that her Mother was a psychic as well, even if she was a totally different brand. Minerva shook the thought off, not wanting to remember such a depressing story about her father at the moment. She calmed herself and grabbed the door handle. Turning it she discovered it really wasn’t locked after all. Why would anyone think it was locked?

Her intention was to apologize for how horribly she treated the man earlier, even if she wasn’t going to tell him the whole story. She really didn’t want to hurt him this badly. She stepped into the room and saw him sleeping, facing the wall and curled up in the fetal position. Memories of watching a young boy sleeping in that same manor flooded her mind and gave her a very calm and warm feeling. A smile almost crept up onto her face until she realized she was reminiscing, at which point she shook them off. Those times were long gone now, there’s not sense in living in the past anymore. Right now, she should just apologize for how she treated him. How she wished she could explain everything to him but it filled her with endless despair to know that she couldn’t.

Minerva gave the man a gentle nudge on his should in attempts to wake him but felt as though she was sent flying backwards, wind knocked out of her, as a jolt of electricity ran up her arm and felt like it struck her directly in the heart. After what felt like an eternity she looked around and realized the only thing that moved was her hand, it had moved back and was hovering right over him, her body hadn’t moved at all no matter how it felt.

The woman wasn’t sure what just happened but she got a bad feeling about it so she walked over to her desk and grabbed the phone on top of it. She hated calling long distance but her instincts were telling her that at this moment something was going on with him that only a few people could understand.

The phone rang for a few seconds but it felt like an hour to the woman, she glanced at the clock also sitting on the desk; it was around one in the afternoon so why wasn’t anyone picking up? Finally she heard a clicking sound.

“Hello?” came a somewhat groggy feminine voice, “Who in the bloody hell is calling in the middle of my nap?!” Ah, that’s the voice Minerva wanted to here. If anyone could help it would be this woman, probably the only other woman to have spent as much time around Emerson as Minerva had, maybe even more. “Hello?!” came the voice again, more irritated this time.

“You take naps at seven at night?” Minerva popped off, jokingly, just glad to hear the womans voice.

The voice remained silent before sighing, “…I’ll be there close to nine at night, your time.” The voice said begrudgingly before hanging up, leaving Minerva with just the sound of beeping. Minerva smiled to herself.

Emerson’s father wasn’t going to be all that happy about it, neither would her own Father, but Emerson’s Aunt Elizabeth was going to be paying them a visit. The woman looked back at the man, wishing she could do something at this very moment for him but she had to wait eight hours for the other woman instead. It was aggravating but it was better to wait for that woman than to try something and screw it all up.

Minerva exited her room, she had to tell her Father that his least-favorite cousin was coming for a visit. Maybe if she got lucky she wouldn’t have to mention it was probably because of a problem Minerva herself caused… but somehow she didn’t think she’d be so lucky.

Her Father had taken it better than she expect, all things considered. He had lost all composure for a brief moment, becoming totally flustered and throwing the first thing he could grab onto the floor – which happened to be a lamp. The lamp itself was fine but the bulb shattered everywhere. Thankfully he was too upset to ask why she was coming in the first place, which was good for Minerva. ‘Crisis averted for now,’ is what she thought.

After she was kicked out of her parents room her Father told her that he didn’t wish to see the visiting woman and to keep her away from him. Minerva wondered how in the world he expected her to do that but she lost her train of thought after he slammed the door in her face and started mumbling, which Minerva could hear even through the door, about ‘that thing that crazy woman does with her cleavage’. The black haired woman was a bit confused by this, not understanding just what he meant by it in the first place.

At least until said crazy woman arrived later that night, looking like a total wreck but still had enough energy to reach around Minerva’s neck and force her into a hug. And it was at that point Minerva understood what he Father meant earlier, to Elizabeth a hug was grabbing someone and slamming their face into her chest like she was trying to suffocate them. “Oh, is that you, little Mira?!” Elizabeth shouted excitedly, swaying her body in a way that only made the other woman more uncomfortable.

Elizabeth released the slightly taller of the two and the taller gasped for air. At least now she understood one reason why her Father didn’t like this woman. “Yes, Elizabeth, it’s me.”

The older woman praised the girl on how big she’d gotten, in more ways than one, which made the taller uncomfortable. The one thing she always had remembered about this woman was her bluntness and ability to make even the most stoic of people horribly uncomfortable. And her tendency to have a bit of a potty mouth, but that’s another story.

“So where’s my baby cousin?” Elizabeth said, excitedly, “still locked up in the usual place?” she marched over to the room and started pounding on the door, demanding he come out. Minerva tried to get her stop but she wasn’t good at dealing with people like this. Was Elizabeth more interested in harassing her Father than seeing her own nephew? Minerva felt like slamming her head against the wall, perhaps she should have called someone else.

“What?!” Peter opened the door and yelled right into Elizabeth’s face, frustrated with all the noise she had been making. She just smirked at him. Before she could get out a playful insult however the woman sensed something flying toward her and she ducked forward, almost hitting the man in front of her. She heard something smash up against the wall and as she turned her head to see what she saw pieces of broken porcelain scattered all over the floor. Looking to the other direction she saw Heather standing there, her arm still extended from throwing the plate like you would a discus, smirking at the brunette with the wavy hair.

“Nice of you to bow to my husband out of respect, Eliza.” Said Heather, smoothing out her dress and returned to standing properly, her smirk turned into a smile that almost looked genuine.

Minerva stared at the scene before her and somewhere along the way Peter got fed up and closed his door again, leaving the three women alone.

“Nice of you to be so attentive to my baby cousin, as always, Heather.” Elizabeth said in response, standing at full attention now. The atmosphere started feeling heavy to the third woman standing in the hallway as the other two seemed to covertly stare each other down. Eventually Minerva broke the silence, stating what had happened when she tried to wake Emerson earlier that afternoon.

“Well then,” said Elizabeth extending her arms upward, stretching, “Looks like we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

So next Chapter will be Chapter 10! Holy Hell people, what's going on with Emerson? What's really going on here? Why has he been asleep for so long? Why is his Aunt the first person Minerva turned to? Why did Minerva hurt Emerson so? Will things ever be better between them? What's up with Peter's past and why doesn't he like Elizabeth? Why did Heather marry a half-blind shut-in to begin with? Will the author ever have more than two or three people following and maybe commenting on this story? And for the love of God why does Elizabeth like to bury people in Marshmallow Hell?!

Find out on the up and coming chapters! Though probably not all at once...

Tune in next time for the next Chapter of 'Reception'!

Stop being such a pussy and fight for your backstabbing woman, Emerson! Who cares if she's practically a Necrophiliac!?

You Got the Motherfucking Right to Remain Violent!
I'll Take 25 Just to Watch Your Life End, I Pray Father Please Forgive Me 'fore I SinOh No Here Comes the Riot - Does Everything Have to Resort to Violence?I Thought I Told You to Keep Fucking Quiet, Don't Even Try to Take This Weapon From Me
I've Come Undone - My, What Have I Done? Fuck it Let's Kill Everyone
I'm a Take You all Down! Saying Fuck the World Now!I'm a Take You all Out! Saying Fuck the World Now!